CANCEL! NASA's SLS is in big trouble after SpaceX's Starship FIFTH launched...

CANCEL! NASA's SLS is in big trouble after SpaceX's Starship FIFTH launched...
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0:00-0:45: Intro
0:46-4:10: SLS Very Bad but Starship…
4:11-6:14: Artemis complex
6:15-7:29: Orion Heat Shiled
7:30-9:25: Solution to this
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#alphatech
#techalpha
#spacex
#elonmusk
#nasa
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CANCEL! NASA's SLS is in big trouble after SpaceX's Starship FIFTH launched...
While SpaceX recently celebrated a major milestone with the successful catch of the Starship booster, marking a significant step toward fully reusable rockets, the contrast couldn't be starker for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). Once seen as the flagship project to return humans to the Moon through the Artemis mission, the SLS has instead become mired in controversy and heavy criticism.
This raises a big question for NASA: What is the most suitable solution for this faltering program?
Continue, cancel, or replace with a better option like SpaceX's Starship, where will be the answer for NASA?
Let’s find out on today’s episode of Alpha Tech.
CANCEL! NASA's SLS is in big trouble after SpaceX's Starship FIFTH launched...
Up until now, I’ve lost count of how many articles or comments I’ve read calling for NASA’s SLS program to be canceled since the start of 2024, while this should have been a period dominated by news about lunar rocket testing in preparation for the Artemis II mission in 2025.
However, reality tends to be harsh, often leaving us stunned. All reactions from the space community, including experts, reveal that NASA’s SLS is losing a lot of time and taxpayer money without yielding any significant results. The Inspector General of NASA has estimated that the program has burned through $23.8 billion so far. Each launch is expected to cost at least $4 billion—four times the initial estimate. This figure far exceeds the costs in the private sector, but it can only launch about once every two years and—unlike SpaceX rockets—cannot be reused.
CANCEL! NASA's SLS is in big trouble after SpaceX's Starship FIFTH launched...
Everyone seems frustrated with this rocket. Beyond space enthusiasts like us, even some government agencies are turning their backs on the SLS. The Department of Defense, which collaborated with the Space Shuttle in the 1970s to gather enough funding to complete its development (leading to a series of design compromises that severely reduced its safety and utility), now sees no value in repeating that process with the SLS. In an interview, Colonel Douglas Pentecost, a senior officer in charge of missile procurement for the U.S. Space Force, said: “It’s a capability right now that we, the DoD, don’t need…We have the capability that we need at the affordability price that we have, so we’re not that interested in some partnership with NASA on the SLS system.”

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[albertross]

850, 000 overtime hours! Are you freaking kidding me? And they're always years behind on completion dates? If anyone in the private sector were the project manager they would be fired and their financials would be audited!

[Reddogovereasy]

The Artemus project is an example of bureaucracy run amuck. Stop the Artemus project, and save the taxpayer's money.

[frankmcgowan]

Once SpaceX demonstrates the ability to relight its Raptor engines in orbit for the de-orbit burn (which I expect to see on IFT-6) and successfully orbit Earth and land (which I expect IFT-7 to accomplish in 2025Q1), the last major hurdle to Starship traveling about the inner solar system is in-orbit refueling. Recovery of both fhe booster and the orbiter will allow SX to concentrate on the refueling part of the flight and additional internals for various purposes.

SLS cannot compete with Starship.

[stephensfarms]

Cancel SLS, and put that money into Starship..

[notreallyme]

This is not just NASA! Every department of the government wastes money like this!

[alanhart]

SLS is a jobs program for Politicians.

[GeorgeDoughty-me]

ALL government agencies should be abolished asap.

[aniballecter]

*Over the last 5 years SpaceX has lowered the cost of refurbishing the 1st stage of the Falcon 9 from $13 million to just $1 million...*

*That means that every day they have lowered the cost by approximately $7200. (about $300 an hour)*

*As you read this comment and one or two others SpaceX has lowered the cost of any launch by at least $5.*

*Can you imagine how much it will cost to send something into space next year?*

*I can't wait to send the bureaucrats at the FAA into space.*

[GringoPicante]

Doc: I’ve been to the future, Marty!
Marty: what’s the space program like?
Doc: in 2950 SpaceX cunducts its first faster than light starship flight…meanwhile the SLS was delayed again

[jomon]

a big money pit....I use to be government employee, the overtime is a national disgrace 😡😡

[barneymiller]

How did we rush and send someone to the moon 50 years ago in a single try and yet the SLS can’t do it for $25B and years of development and test after test? There is failure after failure in different systems. What is the cap on this effort?

[albertross]

With the government involved in Artemis you automatically have multiply every cost by a factor of four. And it's still technology from an era that's outdated.

[markxxxdavis]

The SLS will never be cost-effective. It is fundamentally flawed. This was clear at the start when they decided to base it on an old engine design. We just need to bite the bullet and cancel this program.

[paulpentz]

Cost plus contracts are the problem. They need to go away!

[notoolmkr]

comparing SpaceX to either China, or Boeing is like comparing their Falcon 9 to a bottle rocket with a whistling report...

[AetherialDraconian]

If it’s going to cost 4 billion for one launch just give the money to spacex

[aussiefootyqueen]

SLS is like looking into the 70s from the present. Space X is decades ahead!

[pdmark]

SLS 100% should be canceled and stop wasting billions of taxpayers dollars

[KirkHinton-rh]

It should have been cancelled years ago. We already have a heavy lift vehicle going to the moon, but they need another one that costs over $4 billion per launch, just to launch a tiny capsule that will dock with the Starship, so why have the SLS?

[robb]

sadly... they wont cancel too many jobs on the line.... and too many politicians involved